Dharamsala, Jan. 24: According to Lhasa Evening News (Ch: Lasa Wen Bao) yesterday, Lhasa City Public Security Bureau (PSB) office had, within three days of Winter "Strike Hard" Campaign that began on 18 January 2009, deployed 600 officers, more than 160 police vehicles and launched raids on 7 housing blocks, 2922 rented houses, 14 guest house and hotels, 18 bars and 3 internet cafés in Lhasa.

After conducting the raid on these locations, the PSB rounded up 5766 suspects and questioned them. This figure highlights the result of the launch of the "Strike Hard" campaign in Lhasa since it was launched three days ago, the newspaper said, according to the Dharamsala based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

The official report, however, did not mention the number of people detained or released following the raid, said TCHRD.

"Apart from this campaign, recently Lhasa City government issued a notice requiring all the outside visitors wishing to stay for more than 3 days and not less than a month in Lhasa City to apply for a temporary stay permit from the PSB office. The notice warned that those failing to procure the same would be severely dealt with legal actions."

Although the primary objective of the current winter "strike hard" campaign was cited as securing public security and stability of Lhasa city, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) believes the authorities are trying to detain those Tibetans suspected to be involved in the 2008 spring protests, target former political prisoners and many Tibetans from outside Lhasa city without official temporary stay permit (Ch: Zan zhu zheng).

Under this campaign, the State law enforcement bodies abuse the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people through arbitrary arrest, detention, interrogation and torture, dismissal from jobs and expulsion from religious institutions, says TCHRD which condemned the launch of so called winter "strike hard" campaign and doubted the motive behind the launch of the campaign prior to major events in Tibet.

"Strike hard" campaign was first launched in China in 1983 with primary objective of fighting corruptions and crime, however, the motive of launching this campaign in China and in Tibet is totally different, according to the TCHRD. "In China, the official objective of this campaign is to crack down severely on general crime and end corruption practices. However, in Tibet the motive is to intimidate and eliminate those supporting Tibetan independence and human rights activists in Tibet."